eye shield

[MaxWilson]

Lifelessness does not counter Drain Life, it just prevents the enemy caster from leeching back fatigue. This may or may not matter--for instance, if he's casting from an item he can keep going all day even without the fatigue leech.

I don't think regeneration is a real counter to the Totem shield curse, but as you say it's odd that we don't know a mitigator for the eye shield aside from avoiding melee. There probably is one if we could figure how the mechanics work, but even if there isn't, there's no counter to the Black Bow of Botulf either.

One more thing: I wouldn't say the answer to an eye shield is to "avoid melee altogether," so much as it is "avoid melee with SCs." Nobody cares if chaff loses an eye or two. Again, this bears a resemblance to the Black Bow of Botulf, which AFAICT also tends to scare off SCs. It also resembles the N1S1 spell Curse (no MR roll) and... maybe a couple of other anti-SC spells that I can't think of right now.

-Max

Edit: oh, yeah, there's no real counter to the Vine Bow. No matter how high your strength is it still tangles you for a round, although how much of a problem that is depends on what other equipment you're wearing. And although this is more of an anti-chaff spell than anti-SC, there's no real counter for Magma Eruption other than heavy armor. Fire resistance doesn't help.